Marketing Roadmaps

Sundance

Auction Bargains!!

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Just a quick update on the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity.

Some pictures have certainly rocketed through the roof — Jessica Biel, The Police and The Beastie Boys, but there are still bargains to be had, you fans of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Toni Collette, Aaron Eckhart, Daryl Hannah and Rufus Wainwright.

Please check it out and help spread the word — with an email, a blog post, a phone call. Whatever you can do. More people means more bids means more money for Habitat for Humanity.

Thanks.

Charity Auction Tips; the Make The Difference Network

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The best thing about working on the HP Charity Auction for Habitat for Humanity is the people I meet doing the fan outreach. They are always so willing to help spread the word.

Today, as I was working away at my desk, I answered the phone and on the other end was Jon Biel. He’s the father of actress Jessica Biel, one of the stars whose photo is in the auction.

He had found me through the Backstage at Sundance blog and my own Web site (helps to have a unique name!) and was calling to find out more about the auction so he could include it in an update to Jessica’s mailing list.

He also wanted to introduce us to the Make The Difference Network, a web portal co-founded by father and daughter:

MTDN is a "National Wish List" where people who want to "Make The Difference" can search, find and fund specific "Wishes" and "Needs" that have been listed by nonprofit organizations. (from their home page)

I think they have a very cool idea. Smaller community charities can’t muster the same support that the big charities do, in no small measure because they can’t get the word out. Many companies want to help but they don’t know where to start. This provides a forum for both funders and charities to find each other.

Just one more reason why I really love this project!

Speaking of the auction: as I posted the other day, the auction is live, and ready for bids. Please check it out. Some tips:

  • Check when your auction ends. You MUST be at your computer when your auction ends. Otherwise, someone will jump in and just top your bid. There is a huge market for celebrity autographs, and a whole lot of savvy eBay vets. You must be in a position to place a closing bid in person if you really want to win.
  • If you want the printer, and think buying it through the auction is a good way to also give back, good for you. A tip: some of our stars are really well known and their photos will go for a lot. Some of the prices are already climbing up there, and the auction has only been live for one day. Others are less well known, and you may be able to get a good deal. So, watch the auction and bid appropriately.

Tags: Charity, Sundance, Jessica Biel, Habitat for Humanity

Roadmaps Round-up: a bit of everything

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Tonight my three seven-week old Scottie puppies have decided to WAKE UP at 9 pm. I would post pictures but they won’t pose 🙁  Maybe tomorrow.

Lot of interesting stuff this week. I’ll start with Robert Scoble’s post about bloggers clearly posting their contact details. While I draw the line at birthdate (TMI), I agree that site owners should publish contact information, whether blog, LiveJournal or  Web site. If you are worried about spam, there are enough email services (gmail, hotmail, yahoo etc) that you don’t have to expose your main email address.

I ran into this problem a lot in the last week as I started fan outreach for the HP Charity Auction. I have very specific rules about how this outreach is done: individually, and only to fansites or blogs that have recently been updated. We want to be sure that hearing about the auction truly is of interest to the site owner and readers. We also NEVER post directly to forums or bulletin boards. Which makes finding a valid email address or contact link really important. For the most part, this is pretty easy. But in some cases, I have to walk away from a site that probably would really like to know that a certain star’s photo is part of the auction because I just can’t find an email address. And that’s a shame.

The lesson for marketers? Make sure your prospects can easily find an email address on your site or blog. It’s probably the most important thing on your site.

Moving on. Fred Wilson on Web. 2.0 is an oxymoron.  Fred, as he so often does, has it dead to rights.  Calling “it” Web 2.0 implies something static (and something that can be hyped, yuck). The reality is, this “stuff” is constantly evolving. Labels just don’t work. Let’s move on.

Speaking of labels, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the latest “a-list” dust-up. You wanna know more – read Media Orchard, Naked Conversations and Beyond Madison Avenue. I am personally pretty much done with the topic. Not on it. Don’t care.

In the practical tips category, both Blog Business World and ProBlogger talked about Andy Wibbels’ blog editorial calendar. I haven’t used this particular tool, but I am a strong believer in an editorial calendar for business blogs, and most particularly group blogs. You have an objective for the effort, otherwise you wouldn’t be doing it. An editorial calendar ensures that the important topics are covered. Not as big a deal with an individual blog but I find that I follow something like a calendar anyway. In any given week, at least one post is a round-up (like this one), one is original content and the third (on a good week) is a toss-up between the two. Or I post a picture of the dogs or the kid 🙂

If you don’t already read Jay Rosen’s PressThink, you should check out this post Guest Writer Andrew Postman: Introduction to the 20th Anniversary Edition of Amusing Ourselves to Death by His Dad, Neil Postman. There is an absolutely wonderful “easter egg” in Jay’s post. (Hint: click on Andrew Postman’s name – it’s not a link to his bio). And no cheating – I’m not going to put the link here – you have to go to the original. It’s that good. And not just for the “easter egg” – read the whole thing. It will make you think.

Speaking of thinking, a blog I am enjoying (and I don’t even remember where I got the first link to it) Dave Rogers’ Groundhog Day. One recent post: Competing Messages: Getting Your Cluetrain™ Ticket Punched. He concludes the post:

“As always, I’m an authority on nothing. I make all this shit up. Do your own thinking”

Yup. That’s a philosophy I can get behind 🙂

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Marketing, Web Marketing, Sundance

Sundance ends, HP charity auction begins

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Cross posted on Backstage at Sundance

Well, Sundance opened with “Friends with Money” and closed with “Alpha Dog.” There has to be a message in there somewhere – perhaps more than one. 🙂

The awards were given last night – FilmBlab has the list  and all the corporate sponsors and beautiful people are packing up and going home. Returning Park City to the residents, skiers and boarders that normally make up the winter population.

It was nice to see so many films by and about women: the afore-mentioned “Friends with Money,” “Stephanie Daley,” and “Come Early Morning” among them. And to hear about films like “Little Miss Sunshine” that almost didn’t get made…. and then hit big. I’m also looking forward to “Thank You For Smoking,” the uncut version. 🙂

Now that the film festival is over, the work on the HP Charity Auction to benefit Habitat for Humanity begins in earnest. My job, as I’ve mentioned before, is to reach out to the online fan bases of the celebrities who participated. They are, after all, pretty likely to want to bid on a signed poster and autographed photo printer of their favorite star.

UPDATE: Here’s the complete list as of January 29th.

Jennifer Aniston (pictured with Catherine Keener)
Jessica Biel
Nick Cassavettes (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Nick Cave
Toni Collette
Matt Dillon
Aaron Eckhart
Ben Foster (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Gina Gershon
Al Gore
Daryl Hannah
Josh Hartnett
Emile Hirsch (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Terrence Howard
Catherine Keener (pictured with Jennifer Aniston)
Lucy Liu
William H. Macy
Joel Madden of Good Charlotte
Guy Pearce
Laura Prepon
Michael Rapaport
Kevin Smith
Amber Tamblyn
Justin Timberlake (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
Wilmer Valderrama
Rufus Wainwright
John Waters
Anton Yelchin (“Alpha Dog” group photo) **Updated**
The Beastie Boys
The Police: Sting, Stewart Copeland and Andy Summers (photo only)

The eBay auction starts February 6th.  You can see thumbnails of most of the portraits on the WireImage site , and by the time the auction begins, you’ll be able to see images of the signed posters and printers on the auction site.  We’ll also be posting some of the images on Backstage at Sundance.

So, check it out, and pass the word!

Tags: Blogs, Blogging, Charity, Sundance